Emily RichardsonArizona Care Network (ACN), one of the nation’s leading accountable care organizations, is working with Solve.Care Foundation to simplify access to care, reduce administrative steps and burdens and speed up payment through blockchain technology.
Solve.Care, a platform using blockchain technology to eliminate healthcare issues, has partnered with ACN to launch its first Care.Wallet for Physicians.
“It’s all about convenience. The argument here is very simple, how many of us are really comfortable, happy, empowered, feel like we’re in control of our health care?” Pradeep Goel CEO, Solve.Care, said. “[ACN’s] challenging the status quo in health care and our platform is designed to improve the health care [because] status quo is not what I want for my kids.”
“The relationship with Solve.Care completely aligns with ACN’s Quadruple Aim to improve the health of our population, reduce the cost of care, improve the patient experience and drive provider satisfaction,” said Dr. David Hanekom, CEO, Arizona Care Network. “The Care.Wallet brings focus to our most important care metrics and gives our providers a solution that is easier and better than the outdated and expensive legacy technologies used in their practices. It removes their pain points and lets them get back to doing more of what they are trained to do – deliver great healthcare.”
Care.Wallet is a mobile app that displays provider quality data and distributes financial rewards. It uses blockchain technology, cloud computing, and cognitive learning capabilities to improve the delivery of health care and administration benefits.
“We are absolutely dependent on the ability to take all the information,” Hanekom said. “We needed a solution that allowed us to bring all that information from the entire ecosystem in, put them around an individual human being and be able to say ‘this is what we know about you, so what do we need to help you with so that you stay healthy and if you have a condition that your condition doesn’t get worse.’”
According to Hanekom, the health care payment system is broken. There are many inefficiencies in the system and Care.Wallet is designed to help patients and doctors get the information and care they need.
In the first phase, ACN will be using the app to align more than 5,500 providers with the mission to improve the health of patients while reducing the cost of care.
“The goal is to use the platform to streamline administrative systems to make healthcare safer and more efficient. This is important, given the headaches faced by physicians in using many different technology solutions – many of which do not talk to each other. This can adversely affect patients and their health.”
The idea of the app is to empower providers to make changes that improve the care their patients are receiving. The physicians can view their individual performance metrics that tell them which patients require better service.
“If they know how well they’re doing, relative to the benchmark, [and] which patients they need to do better with, then they have something that they can take action on,” Hanekom said. “The physicians are very excited about this because it allows them to immediately see how [they] are doing relative to all the other physicians. “
According to the companies, “the app contains Care.Cards that interact within the blockchain ecosystem of Care.Wallets. The wallets and the cards automatically sync with other wallets, resulting in real-time coordination of information and administration across stakeholders to create a unique experience.
Transactions in the network occur within the digital healthcare currency of Solve.Care called Care.Coin, the first digital currency used for healthcare payments.
The primary advantages of Care.Coins are instant and transparent payments inside the system. Physicians receive Care.Coins at the end of each quarter, which can be redeemed for fiat currency.”
Care.Coins will also be used in the reward program that doctors will have through the system.
“We’re now going to pay my physicians through a rewards program that I have. I’m going to pay them as a Care.Coin, which is a digital currency, which they can keep, or they can redeem them,” Hanekom said.
Since the app allows organizations to create, store, and share records via blockchain technology, doctors’ offices can use it in real-time to check patient eligibility, benefit details, coordinate care across locations.
It will also allow patients to schedule appointments and request rides to and from the appointment.
“This is the breakthrough implementation of blockchain in healthcare. We are improving the coordination, administration and payments of healthcare worldwide starting with the first client, Arizona Care Network,” Goel said. “Care.Wallet is bringing transparency, simplicity, coordination and accuracy of payments to healthcare like never before.”
Currently, the app is only available for physicians, but the companies plan to roll out Care.Wallet for Patients in the next six months.
Joseph Kavetsky
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